2004 Press Releases

USA–Laos NTR Coalition Visits Laos (Jan. 22, 2004)

Ambassador Douglas A. Hartwick met Mr. Sary Tataporn and the USA-Laos NTR Coalition.

Ambassador Douglas A. Hartwick met Mr. Sary Tataporn and the USA-Laos NTR Coalition, a group of 37 Lao-American business people visiting Laos, at the American Embassy on January 22, 2004.

The USA–Laos NTR Coalition, which includes representatives from several Lao-American ethnicities, spent more than a week in Laos, examining the business climate and making its views known to Lao officials, including the Prime Minister, Foreign Minister, and Minister of Commerce, as well as a range of other high-level officials.

In their meetings, the Coalition expressed its view of how best to support passage of Normal Trade Relations by the American Congress. The Coalition noted that the Lao Government cannot assume that the American Congress will authorize Normal Trade Relations simply because the Bush Administration wants it. It therefore urged the Lao Government to do all that it can to make the case for NTR with the American Congress. The Coalition also noted that opponents of NTR are not necessarily the majority or the best-informed segments of Lao-American public opinion, but they have been the loudest, and that effort by the Lao government to work with Lao-American groups to address their concerns would be an important way to generate greater support for Normal Trade Relations.